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Long
ago, poets relied on nine muses, born to the god Zeus and Mnemosyne
(memory), to inspire them and help them to retain the memories of
those things for which they had no books. The nine muses presided
over the inspiration for several types of poetry, dramatic arts,
music, history, astronomy and dance. It is from their gifts of inspiration
that we take the name for our writing group, The Ninth Muse.
We
are a group of eight people who love writing and do it in our own
solitary spaces. We come together as a group once a month to do
the work of the muses for one another: inspiring, sparking the creative
spirit, celebrating small victories, and lamenting the obstacles
that we encounter. We all have backgrounds in listening to people,
whether in counseling, healing, or ministry. We gather to
find our voices that are otherwise silenced in the listening. We
are only eight people; but as we meet, the synergy created by our
group energy gives rise to The Ninth Muse. Hence, we have chosen
our name.
This
process started as several of us attended the Harriet Austin Writers'
Conference in Athens, GA, in the summer of 2002. We heard of the
benefits writers were finding in being part of groups, and decided
to form our group. In September of 2002 we began meeting once
a month at The Center for Therapeutic Arts in Grayson, GA.
At
each meeting, three members of our group submit a piece of writing
prior to the meeting for the other members to read and prepare to
provide feedback. Two other members serve as moderator for the discussion
and writing exercise leader. We meet for three hours, during which
time each writer is given thirty minutes of feedback in a "round
robin" fashion. The author then has ten minutes of response
time. We close with thirty minutes of participation in a writing
exercise.
This
process has benefited us in a variety of ways. Two of our members
have completed novel manuscripts which they have submitted to publishers.
Other members have begun serious work on ideas that may some day
be published. And other members have begun exercising tired or dormant
voices, which have benefited from the support and encouragement
of the group.
We
hope that you, too, will be inspired to find your own vision as
we share our group and individual thoughts on these web pages and
that you will continue to visit our site.
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